Protection & Offensive Explosiveness: Where Do The Bucs Rank

by Staff Report on January 23, 2010

There are many ways to look at NFL stats in general; the easiest way of course is just to glance over the wins and loss columns, as it truly means more then individual or team stats. But digging a little deeper often times reveals which teams are heads and shoulders above the rest of the league or if a team can overcome a weakness by developing or improving on a strength.

So, what we did was take a look at an offensive lines ability or inability to protect a quarterback and how it affected there ability to make explosive plays in the passing game.

The first list of data is geared to see which teams fared better at protecting there respective signal callers. While it’s subjective in nature, we decided only to look at quarterback hits and sacks as quarterback pressures are harder to determine. So by taking the total amount of attempts per team and dividing them by the total number of sacks and quarterbacks hits to determine the pressure percentage each team’s offensive line gave up over the course of the 2009 season. We then divided the number of total pressure by the actual attempts to determine the number of times a quarterback could drop back before being sacked or hit.

Offensive Line Protection

Rk

Team

Att

Sacks

QB Hits

Total

%

Per Att

1

Indianapolis Colts

601

13

44

57

9%

11

2

Tennessee Titans

476

15

44

59

12%

8

3

New Orleans Saints

544

20

52

72

13%

8

4

New England Patriots

592

18

70

88

15%

7

5

Atlanta Falcons

570

27

59

86

15%

7

6

San Diego Chargers

519

26

53

79

15%

7

7

Denver Broncos

558

34

60

94

17%

6

8

Miami Dolphins

545

34

63

97

18%

6

9

Cincinnati Bengals

477

29

56

85

18%

6

10

Philadelphia Eagles

553

38

62

100

18%

6

11

New York Giants

542

32

74

106

20%

5

12

Houston Texans

593

25

92

117

20%

5

13

Arizona Cardinals

594

26

93

119

20%

5

14

Chicago Bears

563

35

78

113

20%

5

15

Dallas Cowboys

550

34

78

112

20%

5

16

Carolina Panthers

465

33

62

95

20%

5

17

Cleveland Browns

443

30

61

91

21%

5

18

New York Jets

393

30

53

83

21%

5

19

Minnesota Vikings

553

34

83

117

21%

5

20

Baltimore Ravens

510

36

72

108

21%

5

21

Seattle Seahawks

609

41

91

132

22%

5

22

San Francisco 49ers

528

40

84

124

23%

4

23

Detroit Lions

585

43

95

138

24%

4

24

Pittsburgh Steelers

536

50

77

127

24%

4

25

Kansas City Chiefs

536

45

83

128

24%

4

26

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

524

33

95

128

24%

4

27

Green Bay Packers

553

51

93

144

26%

4

28

St. Louis Rams

543

44

98

142

26%

4

29

Washington Redskins

533

46

95

141

26%

4

30

Oakland Raiders

485

49

96

145

30%

3

31

Jacksonville Jaguars

519

44

125

169

33%

3

32

Buffalo Bills

441

46

103

149

34%

3

NFL Average

532

34

76

111

21%

5

The second list of data is how explosive an offense was in the passing game. To determine the explosiveness of an offense’s passing attack we took the total number of 20 and 40 plus yard passing plays and divided them by the total number of attempts plus sacks.

Explosive Passing Plays Percentage / Per Attempt

Rk

Team

Att

20+

40+

Total

%

Per Att

1

Miami Dolphins

579

29

4

33

6%

18

2

St. Louis Rams

587

32

2

34

6%

17

3

Cleveland Browns

473

25

4

29

6%

16

4

Oakland Raiders

534

30

4

34

6%

16

5

Seattle Seahawks

650

39

6

45

7%

14

6

Detroit Lions

628

39

6

45

7%

14

7

Atlanta Falcons

597

39

5

44

7%

14

8

Buffalo Bills

487

31

6

37

8%

13

9

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

557

40

4

44

8%

13

10

Tennessee Titans

491

32

8

40

8%

12

11

Cincinnati Bengals

506

36

5

41

8%

12

12

Arizona Cardinals

620

49

3

52

8%

12

13

San Francisco 49ers

568

42

7

49

9%

12

14

New England Patriots

610

43

12

55

9%

11

15

Denver Broncos

592

43

9

52

9%

11

16

Kansas City Chiefs

581

41

9

50

9%

12

17

Jacksonville Jaguars

563

44

6

50

9%

11

18

Washington Redskins

579

43

10

53

9%

11

19

Baltimore Ravens

546

44

8

52

10%

11

20

Carolina Panthers

498

39

10

49

10%

10

21

Chicago Bears

598

56

6

62

10%

10

22

New York Jets

423

37

8

45

11%

9

23

Indianapolis Colts

614

62

8

70

11%

9

24

Minnesota Vikings

587

55

13

68

12%

9

25

New Orleans Saints

564

58

11

69

12%

8

26

Green Bay Packers

604

55

17

72

12%

8

27

Houston Texans

618

63

15

78

13%

8

28

New York Giants

574

62

12

74

13%

8

29

Dallas Cowboys

584

61

17

78

13%

7

30

Pittsburgh Steelers

586

64

14

78

13%

8

31

San Diego Chargers

545

67

13

80

15%

7

32

Philadelphia Eagles

591

65

21

86

15%

7

NFL Average

567

46

9

55

10%

11

The Bucs ranked 26th in pressure per pass attempt, allowing either a sack or quarterback hit once every four times they decided to drop back and pass the football and were ranked 9th worst in explosive passing plays per attempt with one every thirteenth attempt.